SimpleBits

U-Turn

Mon, 29 Nov 2010 16:30:14 -0500

I’ve packed up and moved things back to WordPress. As much as I’ve come to love Tumblr, using it as a primary way of hosting your business isn’t a rock solid option right now. Rate limits and downtimes have been on the rise in recent months, and it got to the point where reverting back to owning my own data and setup made more sense.

Luckily, I’ve always had a WordPress installation happily running back on my own server, which was still managing the 10 years of archives that have been sitting around here collecting dust. Reworking the WP templates to handle different post types (links, quotes, photos, etc.) wasn’t all that difficult when running if/else conditionals using categories (I’d been doing this prior to the switch over to Tumblr).

Sill a fair amount to clean up, particularly in the portfolio, but I’ll be posting from WP from now on. That means you’ll want to grab the new (old?) RSS feed here.

I’ll likely still use the Bitstream account here to post random bits that don’t fit on the main blog.

Evolution

Wed, 24 Nov 2010 10:59:00 -0500

One of the things I’ve tried to maintain with the branding around here is a building on top of what currently exists. Rather than completely toss out the visuals of designs and previous logos, I like to keep hints to the past. Part of that helps familiarity, but it also maintains a path of evolution rather than revolution.

Last week I rolled out an updated SimpleBits mark and simplified layout. I started tinkering a few months ago over on Dribbble and after some great feedback, settled on hex shape borrowed from the inner cube of the old mark, which was carried over from the original pixel art logo way back when. The new mark should work far better at smaller sizes and applications (which was the reason for the tweaking) and seemed fitting to bring back the original orange from the first (extremely dated) design from years ago (11px Verdana still looks good, no?).

Along with the new logo I made some adjustments to the template here as well. Most of those changes centered on a new typeface: FF Milo Web Pro which is versitle in various sizes, looks great in all caps and can be served up via Typekit (you need to purchase the font from FontFont first, which then unlocks it for use with Typekit).

Here’s to personal sites being a perpetual sandbox.

CSS3 For Web Designers

Tue, 16 Nov 2010 09:30:00 -0500

For the fourth time in my life, I’ve written a book. It’s titled, CSS3 For Web Designers and it’s available today in paperback and ebook formats from A Book Apart. I couldn’t be more excited, seeing this little green thing launch after months of planning, writing, editing, fretting. I certainly didn’t do it alone.

Photo by Jason Santa Maria

I wouldn’t be writing books if it weren’t for Jeffrey Zeldman, so it’s especially fantastic to have CSS3 For Web Designers be the No. 2 offering from A Book Apart—a publishing house created by Jeffrey, Mandy Brown and Jason Santa Maria. Their focus on “brief books for people who make websites” was a perfect fit for the book I wanted to write: a practical guide to portions of CSS3 that work today, usable by anyone right now. I’ve been speaking about how CSS3 can be safely and easily utilized on the experience layer of well-crafted websites over the last year, and it’s wonderful to have that research packaged up in paper and pixel form.

Following up Jeremy Keith’s HTML5 For Web Designers masterpiece was an impossible task. His book was the right time, the right subject and the right author. It’s an instant classic. Daunting as it was, I set out on a similar task: show what can be done right now, no filler, and let people get back to work. The brief book format is rather brilliant for these types of subjects, and ABA already has several more titles in the works from the likes of Kissane and Marcotte. It’s an honor to be a part of this.

If anything sounds good in the book it’s because of Mandy Brown, the most detailed editor I’ve worked with. Mandy has a frightening grasp on the subject matter while at the same time mastering the editorial tone. That combination makes her some sort of supereditor (a word I’ve just invented). If anything looks good in the book it’s because of Jason Santa Maria, whose design system is one of the most clear and pleasant book layouts I’ve worked within (that’s Jason’s photo above as well). And if anything is accurate it’s because of Ethan Marcotte who handled tech editing like the gentleman-genius he is. As I mentioned earlier, I wouldn’t be writing books if it weren’t for Mr. Zeldman, so to have him publish this little book is a special thing.

So go grab a copy! I recommend the paperback + ebook bundle. You’ll get the beautiful book as well as inline video within the epub version. A great way to demonstrate those transitions, transforms and animations.

And check out Jeffrey’s blog post, Jason’s blog post, Mandy’s blog post, as well as a sample of chapter 2, Understanding CSS Transitions over at A List Apart which was also published today.

"Designing for the web is like building sand sculptures."

Mon, 15 Nov 2010 21:32:39 -0500

“Designing for the web is like building sand sculptures.”

- Dan Rubin

I’m back in the saddle this week after returning from...

Mon, 15 Nov 2010 15:49:58 -0500

I’m back in the saddle this week after returning from Build, a conference in Northern Ireland, expertly assembled by Andy McMillan. It was a great event, and a nice way to cap off a busy year of speaking. Build was my last event till 2012. I decided I need some time off to recharge, focus on some other things, not be away from the family, and take a good long while before thinking about diving into Keynote again to construct a fresh talk. Looking forward to attending an event or two in 2011.

“This car is an exact replica…of a car.” 2011...

Sun, 24 Oct 2010 17:00:00 -0400

“This car is an exact replica…of a car.” 2011 Mediocrity

Close Pixelate

Fri, 15 Oct 2010 10:10:43 -0400

Close Pixelate:

David Desandro’s “…script converts an image into a pixelated version using an HTML5 canvas element”. Awesome. (via @paul_irish)

MOTHER EFFING TEXT-SHADOW

Fri, 15 Oct 2010 10:04:46 -0400

MOTHER EFFING TEXT-SHADOW:

Somewhat self-explanatory. Be sure to click the “all the way” button.

After a long under-the-hood tweaking, I’ve re-opened the...

Tue, 12 Oct 2010 14:47:46 -0400

After a long under-the-hood tweaking, I’ve re-opened the SimpleBits Shop. Our friends at Acme Prints are once again handing both the printing and fulfillment of orders now, which will free me up to create more designs, or plan that pretzel stand I’ve always dreamed of openin—Oh. I mean other things.

Along with the re-opening, there’s a brand new shirt available: The Bit Monsters Tee. Three, handcrafted pixel beings in orange on a brown shirt. Simple. And just in time for Halloween.

The Big Web Show #22

Fri, 08 Oct 2010 12:07:17 -0400

The Big Web Show #22:

I had the pleasure of being a live guest on The Big Web Show with Jeffrey Zeldman and Dan Benjamin yesterday. Had a great time talking about Dribbble, Cork’d, my upcoming CSS3 book for A Book Apart and more. The video and audio are posted now.

For the last few weeks I’ve been playing with a new free...

Wed, 06 Oct 2010 10:05:10 -0400

For the last few weeks I’ve been playing with a new free iPhone app called Instagram. Snap a photo, choose a vintage filter and share it with other Instagramers and the web. Sounds simple no? But it’s a unique take on photo sharing, where the social aspects play a large role, but entirely within the iPhone interface (at least for now). The square dimensions of the “Polaroid” add creative constraint along with the built-in filters.

It’ll be fun to watch Instagram grow. Oh, and it’s available today on App Store.

Gridulator

Thu, 30 Sep 2010 21:43:00 -0400

Gridulator:

Handy tool for creating pixel-based grid layout guides. Creator David Sleight explains, “tell Gridulator your layout width and the number of columns you want, and it’ll spit back all the possible grids that have nice, round integers.”

Received a beautiful pre-event package from Andy McMillan today....

Thu, 30 Sep 2010 09:53:32 -0400

Received a beautiful pre-event package from Andy McMillan today. Very much looking forward to thanking him in person in November at the Build conference in Belfast.

"I’ve lived through the change from metal type to film to digital and from the desktop and to the Web..."

Sat, 18 Sep 2010 11:53:00 -0400

“I’ve lived through the change from metal type to film to digital and from the desktop and to the Web to wherever we are now — I don’t know — so I’ve had to adapt to these changes, and I’ve done so very readily, I’ve been glad to do that.”

- Matthew Carter profile in The Boston Globe

Viva la SimpleQuiz

Fri, 17 Sep 2010 10:32:48 -0400

Viva la SimpleQuiz:

Bruce Lawson has ressurrected the SimpleQuiz for HTML5. The first question tackles how to mark up a series of products using new semantics. This will surely be a fantastic way of getting a handle on new solutions made possible with HTML5.

Snoopy: View-source on iPhone/iPad

Mon, 13 Sep 2010 13:55:07 -0400

Snoopy: View-source on iPhone/iPad:

Handy little JavaScript bookmarklet for viewing source on the go. (via)

IE9 Beta and CSS3

Wed, 08 Sep 2010 13:14:34 -0400

IE9 Beta and CSS3:

Internet Explorer 9 Beta will be unleased in a week. Here’s what it’ll support in regards to CSS3. border-radius, box-shadow, multiple background images, RGBA, opacity, media queries, loads of selectors and much more.

Surely I’m late to the game with this (as usual these...

Tue, 07 Sep 2010 15:49:49 -0400

Surely I’m late to the game with this (as usual these days), but this is possibly the greatest music video ever conceived. Speaking as a former marching band geek of course. (Hat tip Hannah Donovan)

Back from vacation. But not really back yet.

Sat, 04 Sep 2010 10:29:00 -0400

Back from vacation. But not really back yet.

Ten Years

Sat, 28 Aug 2010 21:28:43 -0400

I’m about to head out on a little vacation, but I realized this Wednesday marks ten years of archives here at SimpleBits. Actually, there were a few other domains that came before simplebits.com (robotcom.com and cederholm.org). I’d actually been publishing short, frequent updates for a few years prior to 2000, either by updating a .html file by hand or using a hobbled together home-grown CMS built with PHP and Perl. Those old posts are long gone, but there’s about to be 10 years of archives still preserved here and that’s rather dumbfounding when I stop and think about it.

It’s likely dumbfounding because the last 10 years also happen to have been the most eventful I’ve ever had. They’ve been both terrifying and wonderful; educational and exciting; important and enlightening. I’m doubtful a majority of that shows up in the archives here. I was busy learning about the web, and that was mostly what was talked about in hypertext. Over the last decade, getting married, having kids, buying a house and other big life events mingled with starting a business or three, writing some books and traveling to parts of the world I never imagined visiting to talk about web design. I have an enormous amount to be thankful for.

Looking ahead, I wonder if I’ll look back at the next 10 years as being this dynamic. I hope so, but it’ll undoubtedly be different. Either way, I thank you very much for reading this tiny little corner of the web, and encouraging the (now) infrequent ramblings and bits.